


In Another World...

by RandoFando_Spoonie



Series: Whumptober 2020 [9]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gun Violence, Whumptober 2020, broken trust, mentions of torture, no.12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26950816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandoFando_Spoonie/pseuds/RandoFando_Spoonie
Summary: In another world Nicky gets up to head for the kitchen, in another world Joe screams at him to run and Nicky makes it out of the church and into the forest. In another world the grenade doesn't quite catch Booker wrong and Booker and Joe are the ones taken.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Whumptober 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947640
Comments: 18
Kudos: 162





	In Another World...

**Author's Note:**

> No. 12: I think I've broken something: Broken Down / Broken Bones / Broken Trust
> 
> I wasn't originally intending this to be a Whumptober story but it fit with Broken Trust so here it is, enjoy.

Inspired by this [Tumblr Post](https://spokenitalics.tumblr.com/post/626167981405274112/)

* * *

In another world Nicky gets up to head for the kitchen, in another world Joe screams at him to run and Nicky makes it out of the church and into the forest. In another world the grenade doesn't quite catch Booker wrong and Booker and Joe are the ones taken. In another world Nicky rushes into the church to find them gone, to find Andy and Nile frantically searching for the others. In another world Andy still destroys Merrick's men, but Nile has to pack their bags because Nicky picks up the sketchbook Joe dropped, his jaw clenched in anger as he arms himself. He takes his own sword at his hip but carries Joe's as well, whoever took them, whoever set them up is going to pay, painfully... slowly.

~*~*~*~*~

In another world Joe wakes up in the van, sees Booker on the floor with him, looks around and breathes a soft sigh of relief that Nicky is not with them, he got out. He will be with Andy and Nile, he will find them.

“Booker... Booker wake up.” He implores his friend in French, in the old dialect of his friend's mother tongue.

“Shut up.”

“Booker, wake up.” He pleads again.

“I said shut up.” The guard tells him again and he scoffs.

“I heard you, what are you going to do? Kill me?” He reaches to touch Booker's shoulder only to get pulled back, “I need to know he's okay.”

“Aw that's cute, he your boyfriend?”

Something deep in Joe bristles and his hackles raise, or they would if he had them, “You're a child. An infant, your mocking is thus infantile. He's not my _boyfriend_ , he's my _best_ friend, my _brother_ , something you clearly have no concept of despite the uniform you wear. Your wearing of that gear is a mockery to every man and woman who's donned it before you for you have no idea what it is to truly fight side by side with another, to learn their moves like your own, to know that no matter what happens they have your back and you have theirs.” He looks down at Booker and continues his speech, “This man is the sword at my back and my shield when I cannot protect myself, he has been at my side through thick and thin, we've fought hundreds of battles and spend thousands of days together. He's not my boyfriend, but he _is_ my family.”

Booker lay on the floor of the van, tears slipping down his cheeks, he'd woken near the beginning of Joe's speech but hadn't had the guts to make his consciousness known and now, now how could he? To hear Joe speak so passionately about him about their relationship, god he had been such a fool, a damned fool and now Joe was going to suffer for it.

He'd felt that all these years he'd had nothing but his grief, nothing but the pain and anguish of losing his wife and children, earning their loathing, their resentment.

They get pulled out of the van when they arrive at the airstrip and Booker can't meet Joe's eyes, he can't meet Copley's either. The plane ride is silent, Booker realizing how monumentally he's fucked up, how stupid he's been over and over as Joe's words ring in his ears.

~*~*~*~*~

It's not long into the flight when Booker's bladder makes itself known and Copley pulls him up and leads him towards the back of the plane.

“Are you alright?” The young man asks and Booker sighs.

“It wasn't supposed to go down like this.”

“I know, I'm sorry. We weren't expecting that level of contamination in Sudan.”

“Booker?” Joe's voice sounds dead, calm, almost too calm. “You sold us out.”

Booker froze, turning to face Joe, “You don't understand, how could you?”

“Understand what? What exactly have you done Book? Why?”

Booker hangs his head, Copley won't meet his eyes. Booker swallows thickly, makes himself look at Joe.

“They were supposed to get the samples in Sudan and it would be over, done.”

Joe glares, “Samples... of us?”

Booker nods, “Their doctors, scientists... if they can figure out how we keep living maybe, maybe they can find a way to end it.”

“You selfish piece of shit!” Joe lunges at Booker, secured or not he didn't care, “You selfish piece of shit! What about Nicky huh? What about Andy?! What are they gonna do? Do you know? Do you have _any_ idea?! Do you even care?!”

Joe got a few good, solid kicks in before Merrick's men were pulling him back. Booker spat blood on the floor of the plane and stared at Joe.

“What would you know of the weight of all these years alone huh? You and Nicky always had each other, all Andy and I had was our grief.”

Joe froze, staring at Booker, “And who's fault is that huh? Are Nicky and I supposed to feel guilty? Stop loving each other because you and Andy lost people? You think we didn't lose Quynh too?” Joe sneered, “Do you ever think of anything or anyone but yourself and your next drink? Do you?”

Booker just glared at him, “You have no idea what it's like to walk this world alone. To feel what she feels to not know if tonight's the night the dreams will end and if you'll be relieved or devastated or both... and what kind of monster does it make you if you're relieved?”

Joe shook his head at him, “No, I don't... because you never said anything.”

“You never asked.”

Joe snorts, “But we did, at first we did. We tried to be there for you Booker, you wouldn't _let_ us.”

“I was supposed to cause you that pain? Make you talk about her?”

“This isn't just about Quynh and you know it. You think we wouldn't want to know she was still alive? That we might, somehow, now be able to find her? With how much technology has changed?” Joe sneered again, hating that they were having this conversation in full view of Copley and Merrick's men, “You're pathetic Booker. I thought you were my friend, my brother, my _family_ , but all this time, _all this time_ , you've what? Loathed Nicky and I for our happiness when you never bothered to try and cultivate your own? You may not want or be able to have what we have Booker but you could have shared your life with us, as our friend and brother, as the man we thought you were instead of drowning your sorrows and plotting our pain and agony to get your own death.” He shakes his head, “I hope you're happy Booker, I really do.”

~*~*~*~*~

Joe and Booker had been separated then, taken to different places on the plane for what remained of the short flight to England. They were put in separate cars for the ride to Merrick's labs.

Joe still headbutted Merrick and much to Joe's surprise Booker tried to stop Merrick from stabbing him, ending up with a broken nose for his trouble. The testing was exhausting, it was torture, true torture, but he did his best to endure, to pray that one day, some day, it would be over.

It took Copley longer to find Andy, Nicky, and Nile, to get them to Merrick's labs, days longer. But eventually the sound of gunshots and screams ran out and Joe laughed.

Kozak looked over at him, “You think it's funny? That this is your friends coming to rescue you?”

Joe's laughing increased a moment, “You better hope it's my friends... because if that is my husband? He's coming to _kill_ you and then he'll rescue me.”

The door to the lab burst open just as Kozak was about to reply, her snide comment cut off before it began as Nicky shot her in the head. The doctor dropped and the gun turned on Booker, for a moment Joe thought Nicky would shoot, but then the gun lowered. Nicky moved to Joe's side, disconnecting him from the IV's, undoing the straps that held him down. Pulled him into his arms and held him close for a few moments, the two speaking in soft whispers. Nile kept an eye on the door while Andy went to Booker.

“Leave me here.”

“No man left behind.” Nile commented from the door and Joe let out a harsh, bitter laugh.

“There's always a first time, he's nothing but a traitor.”

“Stop. Now's not the time. We don't get a way in when it ends. We never have.” Andy commented and then watched Booker, “But we can control how we live. And to be honest, Book, you and I? We've been doing a shit job of it.” She finished unbuckling him, “Now get up. Let's go.”

Nicky looked over at Andy, he and Nile both aware of Andy's mortality. “Andy, are you sure?”

“This changes nothing, we walk out of her like we always have, together.” She smirked, “Let's get this motherfucker.”

They get out of the Merrick's labs virtually the same, Joe and Nicky embrace a moment or two longer after Nicky comes back but otherwise things go well and they to the safehouse to clean up and figure out what to do with Booker.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The night doesn't help so the next day they go to a bar, Booker waits outside and Nile knowing she's too young, too new, steps outside to let those he'd truly betrayed sort things out.

“How's it going in there?” Booker asks her when she joins him.

“They're still deciding.”

“Not much to decide, it's not like they can kill me.”

They talk for a bit about her choice to stay with them, how Copley will make it look like she was KIA and her family will mourn but be able to move on. He nods, it's a good choice.

“I just really want to hear my mom's voice one more time.” Nile sighs heavily looking at her phone and Booker take the chance to do what he should have done, would have done, sooner if he'd had the chance.

“It's tempting, I know, but you can't given in to it. Not now, not ever.”

She frowns, “Why not?”

“You will always and forever be the young woman right there, but everyone around you,” He shrugs, she gets it, they won't be. “If you try to touch their lives, well, they will get to learn your secret. They will beg you to share it with them and you won't be able to. And they won't believe you, of course.” He takes a drink from his glass, his eyes welling up, “And they will tell you that you don't love them. That your love is weak or selfish, and you will never forget the hate and despair in their eyes. And you will know what it is to lose everyone you've ever loved.”

She looks at him a moment, eyes too wise for her age, “Isn't that what you've done?”

He nearly drops his glass, “What?”

“You _had_ love, it may not have been the kind you wanted, but you had it and because it wasn't the kind you wanted, longed for, you threw it back in their faces. Told them the love they were offering you wasn't good enough.”

He gives a sound that could be a sob, could be a laugh, is likely equal parts both and nods, taking another drink, “You're a good kid Nile, you'll be great for the team.”

They separate, Booker to the waterline and Nile back to the group. The decision is made, the price extracted and Booker realizes if he'd thought he'd spent 'all these years alone', he really had no idea. He would now though.

But what did he expect really, he'd broken their trust and more really. He'd have to earn it back. Eventually, for now... they all needed to heal. To figure out how to move passed this.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me on Tumblr: RandoFando-Spoonie
> 
> As always, kudos/comments aren't necessary but appreciated.


End file.
